Honor

What is honor? That's a particularly relevant question as we head into the election. Is honor reputation? Or is it something between a person and herself? What value does honor have? Do most people care about honor?

Dictionaries define honor as being the same as reputation (e.g., "high respect; great esteem," "good name") and as being more about ethics (e.g., "adherence to what is right," "integrity").* While these definitions are different, they are not mutually exclusive.

Altman, Hamilton, Blaylock
Photo: Marjorie Phillips Elliott

Honor, a one-act written and directed by T.J. Elliott and presented by Knowledge Workings Theater Company, utilizes both definitions, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes separately.

As the show starts, Ludwig Cade (John Blaylock), General Counsel of an unnamed company, and Ronnee Emerson (Alinca Hamilton), Associate General Counsel, are sitting in a conference room, waiting for Don Troy (Ed Altman), former VP and now "R&D Consultant." Don shows up, cheerful and obnoxious and full of himself. Ludwig says that they have two things to discuss, and before he can get any further, Don hijacks the conversation. When Ludwig is finally able to get the meeting back on track, they get to the subject at hand:

Ronnee (to Don): ... you will be very glad to hear that the investigation is concluded. (Consults paper) And we found no support for the accusations that you helped in any bullying of any employee.

Don: (Beat) The accusations against me were false? (Exhales) False accusations. That’s your verdict?

Ludwig: The investigators did not find them to be true.

Don: Which is generally the definition of false....

Ludwig: Unsupported and false are not synonyms…

We gradually learn the details of the situation, although there is disagreement as to their meaning. 

Don and Ronnee debate the meaning of honor at length, both evidencing an unusual (and unconvincing) familiarity with The Iliad and The Odyssey. They also debate the meaning of facts and how the world looks different and is different for White men and Black women (Ronnee is Black). Ludwig is more pragmatic and not interested in theoretical conversations.

Altman, Hamilton, Blaylock
Photo: Marjorie Phillips Elliott

This is a good set-up, with a lot of potential, and I'd say that this production achieves maybe 60% of that potential. First, the play itself needs to be better focused. While Don's many tangents are sometimes interesting and always help define his character, there are too many of them. Some of the actual useful information gets lost in the noise. I would also wish that the set-up be streamlined and that the rest of the play take its time a little more. 

The direction could also be better focused, as could the acting. The physical expression of the acting is sometimes neglected and sometimes just wrong. In particular, Ronnee is too casual in her physicality and her speech. Being a Black woman and a corporate lawyer generally requires a tremendous amount of care and some formality, along with a high emotional cost. 

While Don's speech and movement can certainly be justified, I would have found the play more compelling if he weren't so committed to being obnoxious. We are told that he is very popular, but we see little reason why. Ludwig feels like a third wheel and a bit generic. Also, Elliott has given Ludwig stomach problems; they might reflect character, but they come across as the playwright trying to get the character out of the room.

The strengths of the play lie in its situation, its embrace of ambiguity, and its recognition that people are, well, people. Complicated, self-focused, messy. As Ronnee says:

When did I realize that Martha Wilton was doing things for her own advantage? I realized it the same moment I realize that in everyone. The second they open their mouth. Everyone is always doing things for their own advantage.

And the way Hamilton says these lines reflects a strength of the play: not cynical, just real.

Wendy Caster

*Definitions from https://www.google.com/search?q=honor+def and https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/honor.